Klaus Beyer (Semitist)

Klaus Beyer (born January 21, 1929 in Fallersleben ; † April 12, 2014 ) was a German Semitist and professor at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg . He was considered the nestor of German-speaking Aramaistics .

Life

Beyer, Nikolaus Müller's maternal great-nephew , grew up in Fallersleben, Braunschweig and Posen. Before the Battle of Poznan , the family fled to the Electoral Palatinate in 1945 . He passed his Abitur at the Kurfürst-Friedrich-Gymnasium Heidelberg . He then studied Protestant theology, classical philology and Semitic studies, first at the University of Heidelberg , and later at the University of Göttingen . He studied under the teachers Wolfram von Soden , Gustav Hölscher and in Göttingen under Karl Georg Kuhn . Beyer followed Kuhn after his move to Heidelberg go back and in 1960 with the signature Semitic Konditionalsyntax in the New Testament to Dr. theol. PhD.

Beyer completed his habilitation under Anton Schall in 1967 and received the Venia legendi for Semitic Studies. After working in research at Heidelberg University, Beyer became a full professor there in 1979 at the chair for Semitic studies, which he held until his retirement in 1994.

research

Beyer's main research focus within Semitic studies was primarily Aramaic studies. There, in turn, his main focus was on Aramaic Palestine between Hellenism and Islam, especially the early development of Aramaic. He worked out the basics of the grammar of Aramaic and created a chronology of the Aramaic sound laws as well as a precise structure of the entire Altaramaic based on them. Ancillary research activities included Hebrew , Arabic , Old Ethiopian and Amharic .

Fonts (selection)

• Semitic syntax in the New Testament . 2nd Edition. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1968.
• Old Hebrew grammar. Phonology and form theory . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1969.
• The Aramaic texts from the Dead Sea including the inscriptions from Palestine, the Levi testament from the Cairo Genisa, the scroll of fasting and the old Talmudic quotations: Volume 1 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984.
• The Aramaic inscriptions from Assyria, Hatra and the rest of eastern Mesopotamia (dated 44 BC to 238 AD) . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1998, ISBN 978-3-525-53645-2 .
• The Aramaic texts from the Dead Sea including the inscriptions from Palestine, Levi's testament from the Cairo Genisa, the scroll of fasting and the old Talmudic quotations: Volume 2 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 3-525-53625-9 .

Web links

• Beyer at his former chair at Heidelberg University